Feeling safer yet?The Department of Homeland Security recently put out a request for technology companies to come up with a hand-held scanning device that can be used instead of pat-down searches on passengers who set off alarms on full-body scanners.

The department oversees the Transportation Security Administration, which operates about 700 full-body scanners at 180 airports across the country. When the scanners detect a hidden object, TSA workers perform a pat-down search.

But critics say TSA screeners rely on the pat-down search too often. Even former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger got a full-body pat-down at LaGuardia Airport in New York recently.

Feeling safer yet?The Department of Homeland Security recently put out a request for technology companies to come up with a hand-held scanning device that can be used instead of pat-down searches on passengers who set off alarms on full-body scanners.

The department oversees the Transportation Security Administration, which operates about 700 full-body scanners at 180 airports across the country. When the scanners detect a hidden object, TSA workers perform a pat-down search.

But critics say TSA screeners rely on the pat-down search too often. Even former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger got a full-body pat-down at LaGuardia Airport in New York recently.

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